Chile: Dictatorship Law to Quell Protests

Chile will use an anti-terrorism law criticized by human rights groups to try and quell a spate of violence over indigenous lands in the country’s south, a government official said.

Chile Invokes Anti-Terror Law to Quell Violence, Rosende Says (Bloomberg)

Peru: Impunity Update

There are some really worrying developments afoot in Peru right now, which I feel I have been remiss in not emphasising earlier. Here's a brief rundown:

1) Defense Minister Rafael Rey says that while soldiers may have committed "detestable" crimes during the civil conflict in Peru, they didn't commit crimes against humanity, because only "terrorists" can do that.

Rey niega graves violaciones a los derechos humanos (La Republica)

2) A package of bills being sent to Congress is attempting to limit the responsibility of members of the security forces involved in lethal confrontations in the "emergency zones".

One of the draft laws would modify the Criminal Code, so that no legal action could be taken against soldiers and police who kill or injure civilians in the so-called "emergency zones," areas controlled by the security forces by order of the executive branch because of "terrorist" threats or violent social protests.
[...]
The executive branch also sent a draft law to Congress on the purpose, scope and definition of the term "use of force" by the National Police, detailing situations in which a police officer is exempt from responsibility when his or her actions have a lethal outcome.

If the accused officer can justify the use of lethal force by the intensity and dangerousness of the aggression, the behaviour of the aggressor, or the hostile surroundings and situation, he or she will be exempt from criminal, civil and administrative responsibility, says the draft law.
[...]
A third draft law proposed by the government would give the military and police the prerogative to remove the bodies of members of the security forces without the presence of prosecutors, as the current laws require. This would mean that they could disturb a crime scene without judicial authorisation.

The package of bills follows an intense campaign by conservative and pro-military groups, which accuse non-governmental organisations (NGOs) of pressing for legal action against troops and police involved in putting down social protests and the guerrillas.

Gov't Seeks Legal Shield for Security Forces (IPS)

3) The accused in the cases of forced disappearance Samuel Ramos Diego, Jesús Liceti Mego and Esaú Cajas Julca have just been acquitted, leaving the crimes still unpunished. The victims were abducted in 1990 and the chiefs of the armed forces in the area were in court for the crimes, but now the judges appear to be calling into question whether the disappearances occurred at all.

Tribunal absuelve a ex jefes del frente Huallaga (La Republica)

4) Teodora Pariona Ventura, one of the founders of the relatives' group ANFASEP, has died, after 20 years of searching, without finding out what happened to her two sons.

Madre de desaparecidos murió en el olvido (La Republica)

Chile: La Cuidad de los Fotografos

Hat tip Colectivo por la memoria

Peru: Museum of Memory Again

Today's statement on the Museum of Memory came from Defense Minister Rafael Rey - and surprise, surprise, he's against it.

"I do not sympathise with this idea (Museum of Memory), because enough time has not passed to be objective (...) two representatives came to visit me and explained to me that the museum would reflect the confrontation between two groups: terrorism and the State, and that society was the victim of this confrontation. I don't believe that, I believe that the Army defended society from the violence of terrorism."

Rey en contra del Museo de la Memoria (La Republica)

Peru: Obstacles to Museum of Memory

Mario Vargas Llosa, currently heading the Museum of Memory commission, has spoken out against an atmosphere of "hostility" from certain sectors. He believes that factions linked to the massacres are trying to prevent the museum coming into existence.

Second-in-command on the museum commission, Salomon Lerner, has recently received death threats. Aside from that, some people in high places have apparently wanted to interfere in the museum project.

Now, despite its initial reluctance to accept the funding for the museum, the government says it is giving its full support to Vargas Llosa and his team. Let's hope so.

Gobierno confirma apoyo a Vargas Llosa para construccion de Museo de la Memoria (La Republica)
Vargas Llosa advierte obstaculos en creacion de Museo de la Memoria (RPP Noticias)

Quick Link: Promises to the Disappeared

Promises to the Disappeared: Art in the Wake of Chile's 9-11 (World Up)

Argentina: 'Julian the Turk'

Many thanks to The Argentine Post for drawing my attention to this fascinating video from Al Jazeera in which a Uruguayan journalist interviews the man who tortured him in Argentina. It's a longer clip than I would usually recommend, but it's really worth watching, even if it does give you more of an insight into the motivation of the interviewer than the interviewee (English and Spanish with English subtitles, click on the screen to go to a larger version).

In the video, Julian the Turk/Turco Julián - real name Julio Simón - veers between denying he ever tortured and justifying what he did. He also attempts to present himself as the good guy, trying to get people free or 'go soft' on them in interrogation.

In fact, this was not the first time I had heard of the torturer. He is one of the very few perpetrators to have spoken out in the media albeit, as we see in this clip, in a highly inconsistent and prevaricating fashion. He appears in Marguerite Feitlowitz's A Lexicon of Terror, where he is quoted as saying,

"What I did I did for my Fatherland, my faith, and my religion. Of course I would do it again." (p.212)

Mario Villani, a survivor of the clandestine detention centres, recalls a figure who on the one hand spent his own money on toilet paper for the prisoners, and on the other was a vicious torturer who displayed particularly pronounced hatred towards Jews. Simón was identified in fifty-eight specific cases of torture following the dictatorship, but was protected under the amnesty laws, free to pass his former victims in the street (Feitlowitz 85-86). Following the repeal of the laws, he was the first member of the military to be convicted of torture during the 'dirty war'.